The Nineties: A Book

by Chuck Klosterman

The late nineties will forever be defined as baseball’s Steroid Era, to the exclusion of all other events that transpired within that same window of time. Anderson’s inconceivable ’96 season isn’t even among the most remembered details of the period, when batting numbers irrationally mushroomed and almost every top player was later questioned about drug use (Ken Griffey Jr., who hit 56 home runs two years in a row with the Seattle Mariners, is one of the era’s rare superstars above suspicion). This scandal proved even more damaging than the ’94 strike. The most depressing episode emerged from what was temporarily seen as the apogee of late-twentieth-century baseball: In 1998, the country was captivated by the most astounding home run race in the history of the sport. Mark McGwire, a stoic hulk with a compact swing, clubbed 70 home runs for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was chased (and sometimes passed) all summer by Sammy Sosa, a magnetic Chicago Cub hailing from the Dominican Republic. Sosa unexpectedly hit 66 home runs and boyishly hopped out of the batter’s box whenever he smashed a ball deep. The two adversaries appeared to genuinely like each other, amplifying the feel-good nature of the competition. Bob Ley, the most credible of ESPN broadcasters, argued that the last time sports had made Americans feel this good was when the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviet Union. McGwire and Sosa had redeemed baseball. When it was later proven that both had used PEDs...